Got Too Much To Do? Use the 80/20 Rule!!

Got Too Much To Do? Use the 80/20 Rule

What Is the 80/20 Rule?

Most people have heard of the 80/20 rule, or as it’s more formally known, Pareto’s Principle. Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who first noted the 80/20 connection at the University of Lausanne in 1896. He showed that 20% of the pea plants in his garden produced 80% of the healthy pea pods and also discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

In 1997 Richard Koch published the 80/20 Principle which, while selling more than a million copies and being translated into 35 languages, went on to show how the Pareto Principle applied to many areas of life. It could be shown to be true in everything from business to careers to nature to personal happiness.

Simply stated the principle shows that 80% of results will come from 20% of the actions.

You See It Everywhere

You’ve probably heard somewhere along the line things like 20% of sales reps bring in 80% of the revenue for a company. Or 20% of your clients are responsible for 80% of your profit. If you look hard enough you might see how this principle seems to fit into many areas of life. For example:

I’m betting that 20% of the employees at your work are responsible for 80% of your company results.

I have 10 hiring managers I work with on a regular basis. I know who I get the best results with. You guessed it, 2 of them.

Typically 20% of employee’s take up 80% of HR’s time and energy. Also known as the squeaky wheel.

I’ve been a lifelong fitness enthusiast. I mix up my workouts every 3-4 months. What I’ve found is even though I change my routines, I get most of my best results from 20% of the exercises I do.

I have about 20 friends in my life that I do things with over the course of a given year. If I’m being honest there are 5 of them I really get along with and we do a lot of things together. Yup, that’s 20%.

80% of the earth’s mineral wealth is produced by less than 20% of the earth’s surface.

You probably wear 20% of your entire wardrobe over and over.

How to apply the 80/20 rule to become less busy

Now comes the fun part. Take an hour or two out of your too busy life and apply the 80/20 rule. Start with work and if so motivated use it in your personal life as well. I like to go through this exercise when I am putting together my work and personal goals for the year and tweak as needed. At work this is easier, it becomes more of a challenge in your personal life. Some things to consider:

Work

We all have time draining tasks such as emails to respond to. Create templates for emails used on a regular basis and prioritize responding quickly to the people that help you achieve the most. Don’t sweat the others as much.

Identify the top 20% of your actions that yield the biggest results (such as your best sourcing techniques) and time block to spend more time on that

Spend more time with the 20% of people at work that help you achieve the most. Spend less time with those that vacuum your precious time.

Identity the top impact activities and spend more time on that. For me it’s sourcing and recruiting high level sales talent so I make sure to spend as much time as possible on that

Conversely spend less time on “low yield” activities that you find yourself doing that aren’t helping you much. For me I find these activities to be things I wind up doing in a trance, such as scanning too many resumes.

Personal

This is a highly subjective area that only you can answer, remember to spend the majority of your time on things that you get the most out of. Here’s what I’ve done in my own personal life that’s helped me:

When possible always spend time on what I consider to be the most important – relationships

Spend time with people that I enjoy being around, less time on those I don’t

Health is vital – find time in every day to exercise on some level

I get enough screen time at work, I minimize this (phone) when with people

Eliminate negativity. This applies to not spending too much time on depressing news to not allowing myself to be cornered by my “woe is me” friend when out for an evening with friends.

Conclusion

Employing the 80/20 in your life can be both an eye opening and game changing experience. Bottom line is we are all busy and we all have the exact same 24 hours in a day. It’s amazing the amount of busywork and redundancy that chips away at our time on a daily basis that really doesn’t do anything meaningful. Carve out 2 hours of your life and take a look at how the 80/20 rule applies to your life, especially at work. Once you identify where the 20% of your activities yield you the best results and provide you with the most satisfaction, start working towards making that a reality. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Also, I wrote this article originally for SourceCon which is a WONDERFUL website and chock full of tools and tips and tricks for sourcers and recruiters. The article is here which will also take you to other great posts on sourcing and recruiting.

Even though I write from a man’s point of view I think many of the topics are universal. Glad you liked the article on the 80/20 rule and got some good stuff out of it. I have to remind myself from time to time to apply it again when I find myself getting sucked into too much.

Great, great post! I mean it! I have read lots of valuable advice over the internet, I have watched a ton of videos on Youtube, but it is rarely actually that I find a working plan I can apply immediately in my life. It is, indeed, sad to see how much time we spend on things that have no impact on our personal progression. So much time wasted. On the other hand, you can’t just come back from work and not take some time for yourself. At the same time, you also have to work on things that matter. Time management is key. I will start applying the 80/20 rule and see how much it will help me.

Thanks so much for the kind words! i’m really glad you enjoyed the article. The thing i like so much about taking a long look at the 80/20 rule is that once you take a deep dive you realize how much “stuff” you do that doesn’t really make any kind of an impact on what’s important to you. Good luck!!